Beauty and the Damned

39 | Poison

The way back to her chamber was easy but the moment she was inside, she found Rowan awake and was sitting on the bed. His elbows rested on his knees. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and was looking on the floor. Ariadne huffed as if calling him. Her heart hammered against her chest.

Rowan lifted his head and looked at her. His eyes were piercing and half of his face was shadowed. She couldn’t see his reaction properly. He didn’t say a thing. Perhaps he finds it useless as she couldn’t talk back. Not in her beast form.

The cold air entered the chamber through the open windows. She shivered at the cold bite of it on her skin, especially on the gash of her leg. The assassins managed to wound her but thankfully, it wasn’t something big. Although it still stings and she is sure it would leave a scar. She planned on hiding it from Rowan but then it seemed like she didn’t need to as she saw him staring directly at the gash on her feet. Her fur is obsidian black and her blood made it even darker. 

Ariadne slumped on the floor and huffed. Rowan stood and walked towards her. She couldn’t read the expression on his face but when he crouched down, she heard him sigh. When she looked up, she was relieved to see the Rowan she knew before.

“Where have you been?” he asked as he gently took her claw and looked at it. She wanted to tell him things but she couldn’t. All she could manage was a whimper. Rowan’s haze eyes met hers. She stared at her as if trying to find out the answer to his question through her eyes. Then he stood and walked towards the drawer and brought back a kit to treat her wounds. She growled when she realized what he was planning to do.

“Shh, now. You got yourself in a mess. I will be gentle with your wound,” he said in his most soothing voice. She huffed in approval and slumped her head on top of her other claw. Rowan was indeed gentle with her wound as he dabbed cotton on top of it gently and carefully. He would blow on it occasionally too. Then she remembered what happened earlier. Some people want Leo dead. She doesn’t know the brothers that much or even Leo to know what could be the reason for a group of assassins to murder him. If she is going to believe what Rowan had claimed to be about his brothers, there is no doubt why some people want them dead. If these people believed that the brothers killed the king and their other brother, perhaps they did something to other people too.

And yet, deep inside her, something tells her there’s more to it. There’s more to the attack than what she thinks and she feels like she has to know the reason behind it. The question is: how? How is she going to ask Leo about it without being caught that she was the beast in her chamber? How is she going to do it without him doubting about the beast he saw tonight?

Rowan wrapped her arm with a bandage and she felt lighter. It didn’t sting like before. He was silent the whole time he was treating her wound. Rowan stood and went to the bathroom to return the kit. When he came back, he just sat beside her, nuzzling on her fur as they stared at the dark sky. The moon was hidden behind the clouds and she couldn’t see Rowan’s face now.

“I was worried sick. I didn’t know you fancy going out at night," he started. She closed her eyes. He is going to ask her tomorrow about her whereabouts. What would she say? That she saw assassins trying to kill Leo and she saved him? What would Rowan say about her saving his brother they consider as enemies?

“But that wound on your leg doesn’t look like you got that from a bush or a thorn, Ariadne,” he said. His hand is gently caressing her claw where her wound was. She opened her eyes and looked at him. The moon was still covered and the chamber was dark. Even her heightened sense of sight was no use. SHe couldn’t see his face. 

Rowan’s hand continued to caress her paw and she winced when he touched her wound.

“That looked like a cut,” he said. “From a dagger.”

Of course, he’d know. She reprimanded herself. What makes her think he wouldn’t know? Even as he doesn’t ask her, he would know. It was indeed a dagger wound. She’s doomed. He’s going to find where she went. If Leo tells anyone that he was attacked tonight, Rowan would surely know where she had been.

She waited for Rowan to say another thing but he was silent. He did not say another thing and just watched the moon as it slowly peeked out of the cloud, illuminating the chamber through the open windows. She looked at Rowan. There was a certain glint in his eyes that she couldn’t identify.

Ariadne huffed and slumped on the floor. Rowan will eventually find out. There is no use in hiding it. So she closed her eyes knowing that tomorrow, Rowan will definitely ask her about it.

By the time morning came, she woke up in her bed. She got up but instantly regretted it when she felt pain in her arm. When she looked at it, the memory of what happened last night came back to her. Assassins were trying to attack Leo and she saved him. Rowan saw her and treated her wound.

She looked at the freshly changed bandage. The bandage he placed last night must have gotten loose the moment she transformed back to human. Ariadne looked around and she couldn’t see any signs of Rowan. She sighed and lie back in bed. Rowan knew it was a dagger’s wound but he didn’t know where she got it from. She was so sure last night that he was going to ask but then she couldn’t find him inside the chamber. Perhaps it was a good thing for her too as she could prepare herself for the interrogation.

Ariadne got up from the bed and halted when she saw a tray of food on the table. She swallowed hard and walked toward it. They were just delivered inside the chamber judging from the smoke rising from the soup. She saw a note on the tray and she took it.

Eat, the note said. There was nothing else on it. Just those three-letter word ordering her to eat. She thought that maybe Rowan was mad but then she remembered Leo and his claims of the food being poisonous. She stared at the tray for a long time before she decided to go to the bathroom and have her bath.

The moment she got out, Rowan was already in the chamber clad in his usual prince suit. He was sitting in front of the tray while a goblet is in his right hand. He didn’t look at her when she got out.

Then he said, “Why didn’t you eat?”

Ariadne paused. She was surprised by his question. Is he not going to confront her with her whereabouts last night? She faced him. “I will eat whenever I wish to, Rowan. Since when have you become so pressed of whether I eat or not?”

“Why not? I am worried about you and you haven’t been eating the meals I gave you,” he said.

She sighed. I’m sorry Rowan but I had to make sure.

“I eat in the dining hall, Rowan. Not here. I feel like a prisoner—“

Rowan let out a bitter laugh but didn’t say anything. She realized what he must have been thinking. She once made him prisoner too.

Then she turned on her back and he was silent. He didn’t say another word and the next thing she heard was the sound of him standing up and taking the tray out. She clenched her fist as she looked at the small vial she had which contained a small portion of the soup. She’s going to end these doubts once and for all.

Ariadne went out of the chamber, wearing a long-sleeved dress. Her wound was carefully bandaged and she walked down the steps to the dining hall. When she arrived in the dining hall, she was surprised to see Kali and Malik eating breakfast. However, she couldn’t see Leo and Marcos. The last time she heard, Kali and Malik were poisoned, and seeing them alive and well only means Rowan did everything he can to save the brothers. It once came to her mind that perhaps Rowan had poisoned them too but then she realized how absurd it was.

How could she? How could she doubt him? How could her mind think that it was him? How could she believe Leo and doubt Rowan? The one she should be doubting is Leo and not the one who declared his love for her.

The two brothers looked at her when she paused. She didn’t as much say another word and she ran towards the chamber. She took the vial which contains little soup and ran to the gardens.

How could she doubt him when in fact it was Leo she should be doubting. She’s going to investigate and see if Leo was bluffing or not. She reached the gardens, panting. She threw the vial and she heard the sound of it breaking. She realized she had hit it on the birdbath. She muttered a curse to herself.

She ran towards it but stopped when she saw birds flying towards the birdbath. She sighed. She couldn’t do anything about it now.

Ariadne sat on the bench and watched the gardens. She has to say sorry to Rowan and she is going to tell him all the things that Leo had said to her.

She was about to walk away when she heard a soft thud. Like the sound of something falling onto the flowers. She looked around and saw the birds on the birdbath dropping one by one to the ground. Ariadne looked in horror at the last bird falling straight into the water. With slow steps, she walked forward, wishing that whatever it was, it couldn’t be true. It can’t be true. Not when she already has decided.

However, as she walked further, she could see the murky water on the birdbath. The vial broke when she threw it and spilled the contents to the water where the birds drink. She swallowed hard as she looked at the birds dead on the ground.

Her hands trembled when she realized what it was.

The soup was poisoned which means Leo had been telling her the truth all along.

Rowan is indeed trying to poison her.

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